Week Nine.

Hey mom!

So in Japan it is Tuesday afternoon right now. Usually we have P Day on Mondays but we went to a parade thing with our mission president yesterday so we decided to make that a dendo (missionary work) opportunity and use Tues as our prep day. Especially since desperately needed to send an email home.

Okay so let me recap clear from my last week in the MTC.]

MTC:

We taught a lesson my last Sat at the MTC at TRC. TRC is where we get to teach members in Japanese. It is basically like doing visiting teaching or home teaching. I was trying to tell a personal experience about receiving revelation from the book of mormon but as I started talking, the person I was talking to began to correct my Nihongo on where it was lacking, and it made me so embarrassed that I started to just cry. Fortunately it was while I was telling my experience and bearing my testimony so my companion and the person we were teaching thought I was over come with the spirit. Really I was just scared to death. That happens a lot to me! Ha ha...

Also in my last week at the MTC the computers were down for awhile and I needed to use them to do TALL which is a program we use to study Japanese. Nothing was working but I found a way around it all and hacked into the computers and listened to music on LDS.org while I udatedMormon.org profile and did other things to prepare to go to Japan. that was also the time when I emailed you a better time to call at teh airport ha ha. I felt really cool.

I also had to opportunity to attend in field orientation where you get taught finding tools, how to use the members, and other things. they really put a huge emphasis on how we need to get out there and baptize people. that was a really long day...

Oh fun fact, everyone at the MTC is injured I swear. THere are so many people that have crutches or casts or slings or wheelchairs. You:d be so amazed!

Another fun fact, pioneer devotionals happen often. So to those getting ready to serve, be ready for that!

Okay, tsugi! (next)

Travel:

I already talked to you a little about my travel experience when I got to the SLC airport, but let me tell you about what happened after we talked.

From SLC I flew to Detroit. In detroit I bought mcdonalds as my last meal in AMerica. While ordering, the cashier asked me and Sister King (who i was with at the moment) who we were and what we were doing. So we had the opportunity to tell her who we were, our purpose, and a little bit about what we believe. We gave her a pass along card and she went and put it in her bag. That was a cool experience. On my flight from detroit to Nagoya, I sat in between 2 nihonjin. I talked to them a little about why I was going to Japan. On person I sat by was a lady in her 40 or 50s and she said she wanted to learn more so she wrote down the information on my name tag and said she:d search it on the internet. I don:t know if she actually will. When I got to Nagoya I had to really use the bathroom. It was there that I experienced my first Japanese toilet. I had the option to use a squatty potty but chose the regular looking toilet. There were so many buttons on this toilet. I was told that I could spray myself ha ha so I wanted to try it out! I turned the spraying force down to low and pushed a button that looked like *start* the toilet started making noise but i didn:t feel anything so i thought maybe I turned it down too low. Then out of no where this huge blast of water sprays me and I was so surprised that I screamed really loud! Sister Orr was in the bathroom doing her hair or something and she started laughing so hard. It was the weirdest experience ever...

The airplane food was some of the best food I:ve ever eaten! They had some good rice and fruit. THey fed us a lot of complimentary meals.. it was a 12 hour flight...

When I finally got to the Sendai Airport, Pres and Sis Rassmussen were waiting for all us missionaries. It was nice to meet them. We went back to the honbu (mission home) where i slept on the most comfortable bed ever.

tsugi!

Arriving in Japan:

My first day after arriving I had this huge orientation thing with all the other people from my doki (this word doesnt translate well. it kinda means, the other people that arrived at the same time I did) It was there that I met my new companions. Yes companionS. I have 2 comps. THeir names are Sister Morita from somewhere in Japan and Sister Johnson from Colorado. Okay, so I don:t know who all reads this blog but I am going to give a shout out to my friend Braeden Hill because this sister Johnson is the same Sister Johnson that we chatted to at work at the information desk on facebook that one day! Her name is Shakira! I think it is pretty neat that Sister Johnson and I talked a little before our missions and now we are best friends and companions!

Right now my companions and I are serving in the Koriyama Zone and the city we are in is called Aizuwakamatsu. We are opening this area!!! The members are all very excited to have sister missionaries in Aizu.

My first impressions of Japan are as follows: Sendai is super bubbly. There are bubble letters and bright colors everywehre. Just like anime. When I got to the ticket place to buy a ticket to get to Aizu, uptown girl was playing in the ticket station. I thought to myself, where the heck am i. Ha ha it was an interesting first impression.

Aizuwakamatsu is very mountainous. As you can see from the pictures. It is really pretty! I don:t think it is too humid either. Not too hot.. not too cold. Okay, maybe a little hot.

Japanese Culture is SO different. Let me explain.

THey don:t use paper towels or napkins really. Just tissues.

You absolutely MUST take your shoes off before entering someone:s home, even your own. There is a proper way to take your shoes off at someone else:s house, but not so much your own house. You can:t let the soles of your shoes touch the ground in your house, even if your aren:t wearing them. I hate this because I love wearing shoes! It will be something I have to get use too.

Chopsticks. I wish I woul dhave practiced. There is chopstick etiquette which is kind of hard to figure out. Also , chopsticks are hard to use I think! HOW DO YOU EAT NOODLES WITH CHOPSTICKS?!?! Also, slurping up noodles is completely appropriate!

When ever you get in someone:s car and they are going to drive you somewhere you always say, onegai shimasu! Which means, please do me this favor! When you get out of someones car and you are at your home you must wait outside until that person drives away and you can:t see them anymore. then you can go back into your house.

before you eat food, you must say itadakimasu! which means humbly partake. I always forget to do that.

Before I came to Japan, i was told that the reason the japanese are so tiny is because they eat healthy and they eat small portions. that is half true. they eat very very very healthy food, but they eat more food than I have ever seen in my life. and it is rude to not eat all the food on the table. if you can:t finish your food then you should give it to someone else to finish.

the regular food here is rice, noodles, eggs, tofu, curry, and soysauce. there bread here is so good too. so much better than harpers homemade.

tsugi!

My first week in Aizu:

my apartment is pretty nice. I sleep on a fouton because thats the regular here. My room has a bamboo floor. My bike is a brown color with a nice basket on the front. we ride our bikes every wehre. it isn:t so bad, but the sidewalks are really narrow and plus here you drive and ride on the left side of the road. I:m still trying to get used to that. my directions are really bad though and sometimes my comps make me lead when we are going somewhere and i always go the wrong way so they have to shout my name and say come back come back. ha ha thats embarrassing. My first day dendo-ing we went housing and streeting. we met a guy from tokyo i think? we met him while we were on our way to the church. we invited him to walk with us and he did. we taught him a little lesson about i don:t know what ha ha. i think he had questions abotu life after death.  anyways, he wasnt from our area so we will have to refer him to the tokyo missionaries. i don:t understand a lick of anything here. but i:m okay with that. i:m a gaijin (foreigner) and the japanese people understand.

my first sunday i didn:t understand anything either. i did have to give a self introduction though in sacrament. i wrote down what to say on a piece of paper and just read it at teh pulpit. everyone said my nihongo was jozu which means skilled but ha i just read it from a paper! so really my nihongo is not jozu at all. sunday night we had dinner with the takahashi family. they are so nice. they pulled a prank on me though. for dinner they brought out this fish that was just... a fish. and said dozo! which means go ahead. i just sat there confused because i didnt know what to do or how to eat it really. so i just said conran shimasu. which means confused. then they brought out the real food we were going to eat with was stew and salad. they all laughed and i was a good sport but secretly inside i wanted to cry. i:m just a sensitive person, okay!!

i don:t hav eproblems with my comps or the work, but i struggle emotionally and spiritually. given teh choice, i would be home right now. i talked to my mission president already abotu it and he pretty much told me i dont have an option. i:m here for 18 months. he gave me a blessing and said my desire to serve will increase.

yesterday we went to a parade. i don:t know what it was about at all. but we went inside a cool castle!

also, another cool thing is on wednesdays we have eikaiwa which is english conversation class. it is a good missionary tool to serve and also people who come often ask who we are and things. it gets them familiar with the missionaries.

well that:s it! oh sorry about my lack of apostraphes. i am using a japanese keyboard adn they dont have apostraphes.

okay, well i will talk to you next monday for me, and sunday for you! i love you!

sister robertson

PICTURES!!!